


bronze & blaze

by Pammie



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: AU, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Superheroes/Superpowers, Angst, Bits of fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Manipulation, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, Government Conspiracies, Hurt/Comfort, Major Character Injury, Powers based on x-men, Superheroes, Supernatural Forces, Violence, Will add more tags as we go along, discovering/using powers, friends - Freeform, mutans, no romance sorry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-24
Updated: 2019-07-21
Packaged: 2019-11-29 14:00:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 10,086
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18224093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pammie/pseuds/Pammie
Summary: First, there was The Accident, also known as The Day When Kageyama Lost Control and, as a result, lost Everything.Then, there was nothing. Eight years of his life, gone, empty, wiped away.After that, he was alone for several years, running from a government that wanted to catch and cage him.But he couldn't run forever. He's caught: however, instead of being sent to a mutant Facility to be experimented on as he had always expected, he's sent to an academy. A school for people like him.Ukai's Academy is safe and welcoming, a place where the teachers are trustworthy and the students are hopeful and friendly. For the first time in his life, Kageyama has a place that he could call home, but other forces are at work. Dangerous mutant groups threaten the peace, mysterious factions of the government are seeking new ways to control mutants, and something from Kageyama's past looms large and deadly.But at least, he's not alone anymore. (right?)





	1. little lost Raven

**Author's Note:**

> Of Bronze and Blaze - Emily Dickenson
> 
> ((reuploaded because of problems with ao3))

The call came in the middle of the night.

Takeda woke with a jerk. He had fallen asleep at his desk - again. The phone rang again and he lurched to his feet, rubbing viciously at the drool that had dried down the side of his face before snatching the landline.

“Yes, hello?”

“Hello.” The voice on the other end was male and sounded familiar? In the background, Takeda could hear chatting and the rustling of papers. “I am very sorry for calling at this hour, but, well, I am a caseworker for the MEO, or, uh, the Mutant Enforcement Office and I was hoping to talk to Ukai Ikkei, head of the Ukai Academy?”

“Right, of course. Sorry, but Ukai-sensei is, ah, busy.” Was it unprofessional to tell them that Ukai was in bed? Takeda took a peek at the clock on the wall. It was 3:12 a.m. He suppressed a sigh. “I’m Takeda Ittetsu, a teacher at the Academy. Can I help you with anything?”

“Again, I’m sorry to call so early, but this is an emergency. About 48 hours ago, we picked up an unregistered mutant, an eighteen-year-old kid who appears to have been living alone and under the radar for a while. The kid’s sick and caused a scene, so there a bit of media coverage on this case. He’s passed his psych evals and although he’s not happy to be here, he’s been compliant but, well, he was ranked as a Category 5, S-tier threat, and several of my colleagues are looking to send him to the Facility.”

Takeda began to grope for some and a pen with his free hand, scribbling down all he could.

“Again, because of pressure from the media and since he seems like a good kid, I’ve been trying to find other alternatives, but the higher-ups have given me a time limit so if I can’t find an Academy willing, or able, to take him on, there’s nothing I can do.”

“Right, right,” Takeda murmured, mind racing. Another student. Could they take in another one? They were running low on staff, but they certainly had more rooms and they’d been talking about hiring soon anyways.

“The few other Academies who have a high enough security rating to take him in were either full or unwilling. You’re my last option.”

“Right.” Takeda squeezed his eyes, trying to process. “You said they were unwilling. Why? I thought you said he passed the psych evals?”

“Well, yes, the preliminary evaluations. But he’s been running from the system for several years and - well, I’d need to know you were on board before I could divulge all the details. The other Academies were uncomfortable with his history and didn’t feel as though they could deal with a telepath.”

“A telepath.”

“Yes.” The agent paused. “A telepath.”

Telepaths were rare. Rare and dangerous. In a world where a small percentage of the population was born with diverse, powerful mutations, nothing seemed to scare the public more than somebody with the ability to mess with one’s mind.

The agent continued. “Frankly, your Academy is understaffed and underfunded. The only reason you have clearance for this, and the only reason I’m reaching out, is because of Ukai’s own telepathic abilities and his history working with the government. I’ve already discussed this with my bosses and they will agree to this deal, as long as you are willing to take him in.”

“Yes, of course.” Takeda said sharply. “Well, the answer is probably yes, I’ll need to run it by Ukai, but I’m sure - How soon do we need to be up there?”

“As soon as possible.”

“Alright. Well, can you give me the details? I call you back as soon as I have a definite answer.”

Five minutes later, Takeda was standing in front of the looming, intricately carved wooden doors that led to Ukai’s quarters. His pulse was pounding. Over the few years he’d worked here, Takeda had had to wake up Ukai in the middle of the night a million times about sick kids, leaking pipes, house fires, and the occasional national emergency. And yet, every time, he hesitated.

He twisted the bronze knob and slipped inside. Ukai’s quarters consisted of a carpeted lobby with an office to the right and a bedroom to the left. A few slivers of moonlight snuck through the velvet curtains, showing old-fashioned decorations, desks stacked with paperwork, overstuffed file cabinets. With his arms stretched out in front of him, Takeda carefully made his way across the dark room and cracked open the bedroom door. This was the part he always hated. He opened his mouth to speak when -

“I am awake, Ittetsu.”

Takeda jumped, then blushed and groped the wall for the light switch, flipping it on. Ukai, grey-haired and grizzled, had maneuvered himself to the edge of the bed, dragging his legs into position.

“No need to explain, I heard all of it,” he said. “Help me dress, will you?”

According to public records, there were five registered telepaths in the country, and Ukai Ikkei was the most powerful and well-known. He had worked for years for the government, on different task forces, fighting against outside threats and terrorist factions before retiring and turning to research. Or, at least, he had meant to focus on his research but had instead founded a mutant academy, almost on accident, with help from his ties in the government.

Despite the public perception of telepaths, Takeda trusted Ukai more than anyone in the world, although it was still unsettling to know that, if he wanted to, Ukai could turn his brain to mush without a problem.

Takeda rushed over, grabbing an outfit from the drawers, and helping Ukai dress before getting him situated in his wheelchair. Supposedly, Takeda and Keishin were supposed to take turns assisting Ukai in the mornings, but, in reality, Keishin was usually _busy_ or passed out. So, per usual, Takeda got the short end of the stick.

“So, you heard everything? Do you think we should bring the kid here?”

“Of course. Those bastards in The Facility would pump him full of sedatives and relaxers until he’s nothing more than a vegetable. Besides, the kid is strong. Very strong. It’d help to have another telepath to work with for my research.”

Once he was situated, Takeda stepped back as Ukai turned on his chair and drove it towards the bathroom. “Strong? I don’t remember the agent mentioning that -”

“He didn’t. But he said they took the kid in a few days ago, right? After an incident?” Ukai paused, turning his steely grey eyes and leathery face towards Takeda. “Two days ago, I felt something, heard something, something like a psychic beacon. It came from the direction of the Capital, so I assumed the government was testing some device, but it felt organic like someone was calling for help. If that was the kid, and if he can project that powerful of a signal from over three hundred miles, then we’re not talking about a simple mind-reader or empath.”

Takeda swallowed. “And you think you can control him?”

“I’m not sure. Hopefully, we won’t need to control him, just teach the kid how to deal with his own power.” He was silent for a moment, deep in thought, but turned sharply towards Takeda. “We’ll need our certificates and government clearances, and probably a packed lunch. Also, we should bring Azumane along. We need the kid to trust us.”

“Azumane? Why not Sugawara?”

“The MEO isn’t Sugawara's biggest fans and besides, if the kid does try anything psychic, Azumane would be immune. Plus, he needs to get out of the house more. When do we leave?”

“The caseworker, Agent Sato, said as soon as we could.”

“Excellent. Give me fifteen minutes.”

Takeda nodded. As Ukai wheeled into the bathroom, Takeda hurried out, making a mental checklist. It was already 3:46 a.m. and they’d need to try and beat morning traffic if they wanted to get to the MEO headquarters before noon.

Thankfully, Ukai’s quarters and the older boy’s bedroom were both on the second floor, so Takeda jogged down the wide, carpeted hall to the west side of the mansion, turned right down a small hallway, and went straight to their bedroom door on the other side of an atrium covered into a sparkling glass ceiling. The moonlight that poured into through the ceiling was refracted and bent, casting a silvery glow.

The bedrooms in the mansion were large and so, to conserve space for classrooms and open more beds for potential students, only Ukai, Saeko and Hinata got their own room: one out of respect, the other because she was the only female in a sea of boys and needed a personal workshop anyways, and the latter for safety.

The third-years bedroom was large, having once been some sort of sitting room. Woven curtain dividers were strung up to give a semblance of privacy, a large TV was propped up against a low wooden table surrounded by piles of several hand-me-down video games and various books, and

Of course, Asahi’s bed was at the other end of the room and although Takeda did his best to sneak across, he tripped over a stack of textbooks, knocking them hard against the wooden frame of a bed.

A lamp turned on almost immediately, revealing Daichi, wearing oversized pajama pants and an old band t-shirt, as he kicked off his covers and scrambled out of bed. “Sir, what’s wrong? What’s happening?”

“Sorry, no, nothing’s wrong, I was just trying to wake Azumane -”

“Is something going on?” Sugawara whispered loudly, sitting up in bed and rubbing his eyes. The lamplight glinted off of his silvery hair.

Takeda grimaced, shaking his head. “Sorry, nothing’s wrong. I was trying to wake Azumane.” Since the others were awake, Takeda marched across the room and shook his Azumane’s shoulder “Hey, get up. We’re going to the Capital and Ukai would like you to come along.”

“The capital?” Daichi asked while Azumane groaned and twisted.

Takeda spoke Azumane’s shoulder a little harder. “Yeah, we got a call just now about a potential student. The MEO wants us to head up the capital and retrieve it as soon as we can.”

“In the middle of the night?” Sugawara crawled to his feet, trying to pat down his impressive cowlick.

“Well, it’s a bit of an emergency -”

“But why me?” Asahi grumbled, giving in and sitting up

“Because it sounds like his mutation is some type of telepathy. And Ukai wants you too. Hurry up and get dressed, we need to leave as soon as possible.”

“Do you need help with anything?” Sugawara asked.

“No, it’s fine, you can go back to bed -”

“We’re up anyways,” Daichi responded.

Takeda paused. “Well, if one of you could get some snacks together, maybe some water bottles, that would be helpful. And Ukai may need help getting his things together.”

They both nodded, serious and alert, and followed Takeda out of the room, Daichi running to Ukai’s quarters and Sugawara down the stairs. Takeda grinned in the dark, also descending down the stairs. He’d been here for over two years now and these kids still impressed him.

The room he and Keishin shared was on the first floor, near the back, close to the basement entrance. Usually, Takeda loved living in a mansion: he loved the dark wood, the faded antiques, the brass accessories, the strangely-shaped windows, the hideaways and quiet places that he could always find, no matter how loud and rambunctious the students were getting, but this was the downside. It took too long to get from point A to point B in emergencies.

Takeda was much less cautious about waking Keishin up: he turned on the light and called, “Keishin, wake up! We’ve got an emergency.”

Ukai’s grandson had been passed on top of his blankets, still wearing the same clothes as the day before, a half-drunk bottle of beer on the nightstand and his phone still open to a live streaming sports channel. His face screwed up as the lights turned on and he muttered something half-asleep so Takeda walked over and, being careful not to touch him, clapped his hands close to his ears, saying loudly, “Keishin! Get up!”

Keishin jerked awake and Takeda jerked away in turn, taking several steps back.

“Shit,” Keishin said, getting his bearings. He sank back down to the bed. “Ittetsu, what the fuck -”

“Sorry, we’re in a hurry.” Takeda grabbed a messenger bag and began throwing notebooks, pens, chargers, whatever he could think of in the bag. He then yanked off the shirt he was wearing, found a fresher, cleaner one, combed his hair once through, all while explaining the situation to Keishin. “Ukai said that he’d like you to keep an eye on the students.”

“Of course,” Keishin huffed. Several blonde-dyed tufts of hair had escaped from his headband and were hanging on either side of his face. He was frowning. “I’m not sure about this, though.”

Takeda paused. “What? Why not?”

“I dunno.” Keishin slowly stood, stretching and wincing. “Just a bad feeling.”

“Did you have a dream? A portent?”

“No. Like I said. Just a bad feeling.”

Still. Considering Keishin’s ability, that was a little disconcerting.

“How long will you be gone?” Keishin asked, changing sweaters and grabbing a box of cigarettes from his drawer.

“Not sure. Possibly all day.”

Keishin nodded and wandered out.

The drive was nice for the first two hours: the morning was dark and soft, with elongated cirrus clouds lacing the skies and catching the light as the sun slowly began to climb up the sky.

The highway was relatively empty until about 5:30 a.m.., but even then, traffic wasn’t bad. It was peaceful. Asahi had fallen asleep instantly. Ukai’s eyes were closed and his breathing was deep, although it seemed more in meditation than sleep. Takeda felt fatigue creep up his neck a few times, but he was used to irregular hours: after triple majoring in university, heading to medical school for six years, working full-time as a pediatrician while getting a master’s in education and then working in several different mutant academies as doctor/teacher/counselor, his body had almost transcended past the human need for sleep. Or rather, he was used to be chronically tired.

Takeda thought.

It wasn’t often that he had time to.

As more and more traffic slipped onto the highways and as the surrounding landscape faded from farms and forests to suburbs and towns, Takeda ran over the situation in his mind. Ukai was famous for his telepathic abilities and was part of the reason that they’re academy had been so successful. For whatever reason, the government trusted Ukai and several kids who probably would’ve been sent to surveillance academies or The Facility were instead trusted to his care. What use was it to have reality-bending powers if your teacher could know your every intent and put you to sleep with just a glance? Still, Ukai wasn’t interested in building a large academy, like Date Tech or Kamomedai. He only accepted students who had nowhere else to go, usually because of poor psych evals or Rank 4 or 5 powers.

The whole thing had begun as an accident. Ukai was, first and foremost, a researcher and a scientist who had founded his academy mainly as an excuse to prevent one of the third-years from being sent to The Facility. He had only meant to keep it going until they found somewhere else for the kids, but they tried very hard. Instead, he began bringing on more students and more teachers, although the faculty only numbered five right now, including Takeda and Ukai.

Technically, they were at the government instituted a limit of the number of students they could take in based on the staff that they had hired. But wasn’t there a grace period of 30 days? He couldn’t remember. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be a problem.

Besides, the Government was probably desperate to get the kid off their hands. Over the last few years, the Mutants Rights group was gaining more and more traction in the Senate and the population, so the Government has had to be more careful about who they put where. If this kid had gained any media coverage, sending him to The Facility would only cause problems for the Government, despite his power.

Takeda watched as the sun rose, illuminating the sprawling skyscrapers and metros of the Capital. A muffled folk song played on the radio and Takeda drove on, feeling a sense of calm for the first time today.

Hopefully, they could go in, pick up the kid, and leave. Maybe this would be easy.

Takeda hadn’t been sure what to expect after reaching the looming, dark concrete building that was the country’s headquarters for the Mutant Enforcement Division, but he should’ve known that it would be paperwork.

After catching the attention of a government clerk, they’d been ushered into a comfy, plain waiting room and then was presented with wave after wave of paperwork. Most required Ukai’s signature and the old man insisted on reading every word on every form, leaving Takeda to sign the few things pertaining to medical issues.

Asahi situated himself in one of the plush chairs and tried to pay attention before falling asleep once again.

Time ticked by. More clerks showed up with more paperwork, affidavits, and contracts. Ukai powered through them silently. Around lunchtime, Takeda let his heavy head sink to the table, resting his eyes. Why was he always surprised by the amount of paperwork the government required? They’d had to do this with every single student. Still, it blew his mind.

Eventually, the door flung open and a squat, balding man entered, wearing a tightly tailored suit and being followed by an exhausted secretary who had an armful of paperwork and folders. Both were wearing government IDs. Asahi startled awake.

“Ah, Ukai-san, nice to meet you again,” the man said, walking forward and shaking their hands. He had a kind, genuine smile. “And Takeda-san, I hope you can forgive me for waking you up so early in the morning and rushing you up to the city.”

Ah. Yep, the man’s ID confirmed it, this was Takoi Sato, the agent on the phone. Had they met before? Takeda couldn’t tell. All federal agents looked the same.

Sato wiped his brow with an already well-used handkerchief before stuffing it unevenly in his pocket. “I’m told that you have already completed the necessary paperwork and most of it is being approved as we speak. Again, I must apologize for the informalities, it’s been a busy last few days -”

“Can you tell us about the kid?” Ukai interrupted. He had his arms crossed, eyebrows creased. Even his crumpled jeans and button-down, he still grabbed the authority in the room. The Sato’s secretary furrowed his eyebrows, but Sato laughed.

“Right.” Sato said. “Of course. Well, he’s powerful. Very powerful. He was given Rank 5, with a bonus S-Tier threat to national security. Because of your history and abilities, you’re his last hope before being sent to The Facility. Even as it is, several of my bosses were against letting him ever see the light of day, but he made quite a spectacle when we took him in and with the media hounding us and the rise of mutant right activists - Well, lets just say that they couldn’t risk another scandal just yet.”

“You’ve sent telepaths to other academies in the past,” Ukai said.

“Low-level telepaths, yes. But this boy’s brain scans were off the charts, dare I say, equal or greater to your ability, Ukai, but…” Sato paused, breathing deep. “He also possesses telekinesis. A strong variation of telekinesis. He tossed around a few vehicles when he was taken in.”

Takeda’s jaw dropped. Telekinesis, the ability to manifest psychic energy as a physical force, was also extremely uncommon and considered a powerful ability in its own right. Were the abilities separate? Manifestations of an unknown mutation? Or did the boy have two powerful mutations?

“You keep saying ‘taken in,’ as if the boy was arrested.”

“Ah, yes. That.” Sato motioned to his secretary who rushed up with a manilla folder and handed it to him. Sato flipped it open and began to toss out newspaper clippings, old photographs, and printed web articles. “Let’s start at the beginning, shall we? The boy in question, Kageyama Tobio, was officially declared dead thirteen years ago.”

Takeda glanced at the photograph that Sato motioned towards. The headline read, “Family of Three Tragically Killed in Mysterious Car Wreck.” Underneath it was a blurry photo showing a crumpled, smoking car sinking into a river, taken from the viewpoint of someone above.

“The Kageyama family were all presumed dead after their car flipped, skidded halfway over a bridge before falling down and sinking into the Kawa River. The parent's bodies were eventually identified after the car was pulled out, but they couldn’t find the boy’s. The police had always assumed that it had been washed somewhere downriver, but, well, we know now that that was not the case.”

Takeda pointed towards the news article. “How was it mysterious?”

“It was a car wreck, but they apparently didn’t hit anything. Witnesses say that the car collided with thin air.”

“Could the boy have caused it?”

“Possibly, but I doubt it. He’s been grilled by several examiners over the last day, and all report that he seems sound of mind, although he’s apparently irritable and anti-social. According to him, there was a man in the road, but he doesn’t remember anything else. It was thirteen years ago, after all, and according to the scanning machine he was hooked up to, he wasn’t lying.”

Ukai raised an eyebrow. “What’s he been up to since then?”

“Apparently, the kid’s been living on his own, using his powers to get what he needs to get by.” The secretary, who had been wearing a permanent frown, bristled, but Sato waved a hand, towards them. “I’ve had agents scouring security footage since he got here, and from we can tell, he only used his powers to get food, clothes, and to stay indefinitely at the Four Seasons Hotel here at the Capital. In fact, he might’ve lived his whole life under the radar, but he caught a mild case of pneumonia about a week ago and lost some control of his telepathy. We found out about him because of the number of psychic disturbances in the hotel. Once we got confirmation, we sent a task-force in to retain him.”

“I’m guessing that didn’t go well,” Ukai said, smiling. “Is that when the media stepped in?”

Sato smirked. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard about it on the news. Yes, a bystander caught the whole thing on tape, especially the part when a sick, coughing kid was tased unconscious by a Government soldier. Nevermind that the kid took out most of our team despite being incapacitated, nevermind that he tossed several cars over thirty feet. The media has been spinning the story up as though we arrested a helpless child and we’ve been getting nothing by slack for it. If he ended up getting sent to the Facility, they would probably lose their minds.”

There was a beat of uncomfortable silence before Takeda coughed awkwardly and asked, “Is he feeling better? How soon can we get him out of here?”

“Well, from what I’ve heard, he’s still pretty weak, but the doctors have cleared travel as long as you academy has a designated physician, which,” he nodded towards Takeda “You do. However, our researchers are putting together an experiment regiment that must be conducted by the said physician and have the results sent back here for study.”

Takeda nodded. That was nothing new. He was already doing daily, government-regulated experiments on Hinata and Sugawara. They mostly involved charting their BMI, temperature, and brain waves.

“Also, it’s come to our attention that you will be understaffed, so we’ll need you to hire another mentor within the next 30 days or there will be a fair bit of legal trouble headed your way.”

“It’s already in the plan,” Ukai responded.

The room the kid was staying in was identical to the standard hospital room, complete with some bland, expressionist artwork of purple orchids and a crappy television playing the weather channel, suspended in one corner of the room. Although, he large, bullet-proof, double-sided mirror that they were all peering through was new.

Takeda wasn’t sure what he had been expecting, but it wasn’t this. The ‘boy’ was older than he thought, for one thing. He must’ve been, what, 18? He was pale, thin, and sickly, wearing some standard pajamas, was connected to a saline drip, and looked to be in a deep sleep. He had straight, raven black hair that hung into his face and was cut in stranger layers and edges as if he had done it by himself and in a hurry.

They watched as a nurse stepped in, began to scribble things down on a checkerboard and checked his vitals. Gently, she shook his shoulder and the boy jolted awake. He began to pull away in a panic before his eyes focused and he relaxed slightly, allowing the nurse the check his pulse and temperature, although he scowled at her the entire time.

Kageyama Tobio’s eyes were impossibly blue, so deep and rich that they almost looked violet.

“He’s been unhappy, but compliant,” Sato said beside them, scratching his nose. “Luckily for him.”

As if he heard him, Kageyama turned towards the one-way mirror, still scowling. He glared directly at Sato for a second before his eyes dropped down towards Ukai and the scowl evaporated into something close to apprehension.

“Can he see us?” Asahi asked nervously.

Sato shook his head.

A metallic device that hung around the kid’s neck, like a necklace, began to beep, low and slow, emitting a dull red light.

“Sorry, but what is that?” Takeda asked, pointing.

“That is a brain wave detector. It lets us know when he’s using his power, which we’ve told him, he’s not allowed to do.”

The nurse in the room had noticed the device and had frozen, inching towards the door as if Kageyama had turned into a bomb.

One of the security guards behind him began to move to enter the room before Ukai waved his hand. “Relax,” he said. “I’m talking to him.”

Sato frowned. “We’d rather you have a verbal conversation -”

Ukai glared up at Sato. “You want me to control him for you, don’t you? I need his trust in order to do that. May I enter the room?”

Sato’s secretary stepped forward, saying, “Sir, that is not advisable-”

“Go ahead,” Sato interrupted, pulling out his sodden handkerchief again. “Feel free.”

“Azumane, push me in.” Asahi nodded, grabbed the handles of his wheelchair and began to maneuver Ukai’s chair towards the door.

“Should I transform?” he asked, quietly as they opened the door.

“No, that shouldn’t be necessary. Stay in this form, please.”

The boy’s cobalt blue eyes followed them as they walked in, staring as Asahi pushed Ukai’s chair to the side of the bed. Ukai and the boy stared at each other, the boy with wide eyes and Ukai with a stern expression. The device on his necks was flashing, fading in and out with a bright red light.

“Well,” Sato said after a minute from where he stood with Takeda on the other side of the window. “I supposed everything is in order. The nurses will help you get him to your vehicle and all of his files will be faxed to you within the next 24 hours.”

“Thank you,” Takeda said hurriedly as Sato began to move towards the door. “I know that it must’ve been difficult to pull this many strings, but we really appreciate it. I’m sure the boy will too.”

Sato stopped and turned, the corners of his mouth pointing up. “I hope so. I sat with him a while, you know when he was first brought. He’ll need some work, but he seems like a good kid.” He gave Kageyama one more passing glance before waving at Takeda and leaving through the steel doors, his secretary trailing behind him.

It took a while for Takeda to find a nurse with enough authority to gather up a prescription for Kageyama, instructions on care, and a wheelchair, but the boy and Ukai still had their eyes locked when Takeda returned, several nurses in tow. Asahi had been leaning against the wall, probably drifting to sleep again, but pushed him upright as they entered.

“They haven’t said a word,” he whispered. “I don’t know if something went wrong-”

“Nothing’s wrong,” Ukai said, snorting. He broke eye contact and motioned towards Takeda. “Kageyama, this will be one of your teachers at the academy, Takeda Ittetsu. Takeda, this is Kageyama, a new student.”

“Nice to meet you,” Takeda said.

Kageyama nodded, looking exhausted.

He was silent as the nurses loaded him up in the wheelchair and he was taken out from the government building and towards their dirty white car. It took some maneuvering to get him situated comfortably, but by the time they finally drove away, he seemed fast asleep.

Kageyama wasn’t asleep. He lay, stretched out across several seats in a large white van, driving away from that awful city and the government facility that stunk of fear, corruption, and apathy.

He still felt like shit. It hurt to breathe in too deeply and his throat felt like someone had stabbed a red hot poker down it a few times, and here he was, a registered mutant, being shipped off to some academy, and yet, he felt safer than he had in, well, who knows how long.

Part of it had to do with the old man, who was doing a crossword puzzle in the passenger seat. He was powerful, no doubt about it, with a psychic power as cold and swirling as the sea. When the old man had first wheeled into his hospital room, Kageyama had panicked, sending a psychic attack that had broke like feeble waves against the man’s iron defenses.

 _Boy,_ the man had said, his grey eyes wide and piercing. _I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to help._

And then the man’s mind had opened up. Kageyama saw everything, bared and vulnerable, an invitation to explore.

_I have things I would rather be left alone, the man had said, his voice harsh, but not unkind. But I need you to see that I have no malice towards you, no ill will. I wish to help you. I know that you do not trust the government, and I advise that you do not, but they are giving you the opportunity to come with us. I have an academy, you see, a place where people like you can rest and be safe. Here, see for yourself._

Then images flashed of a large, dark mansion, well-used and well-kept, tucked between farms in the countryside. He saw smiling faces, he saw sunny days, and feelings of friendship and security.

_I won’t lie. Things are difficult for people like you._

Here, Kageyama saw government forms, discrimination from people walking across the street, he saw navy blue government-regulated suits and training rooms.

_But it is not bad to learn how to use your gifts, learn how to use them for the good of others. And things are changing._

Images flashed of news clips, showing pro-mutant marches, he saw people in those government-regulated suits saving people from burning buildings, from monsters who were threatening them.

_And from what I’ve heard, your life was not easy beforehand._

The man reached out a tentative connection, a question, and Kageyama answered by slowly, gently, lowering his walls.

The man’s mind didn’t go in, he simply peered. Kageyama showed him the all-consuming loneliness, the quiet of that hotel room he had been staying in, the boredom of staying safe and alone, the awful, encroaching feeling that he was doing something wrong, but not knowing what. He showed his fear of the government, of being found and known. And as the old man continued to watch, not enter, Kageyama showed The Accident, the car wreck, that had started everything.

The old man even noticed the gaping holes that sat in Kageyama’s memories.

_What are those empty spots? What happened?_

Kageyama pulled him in a little more, showing how he had hidden on the riverbank after The Accident when he was six, terrified, paralyzed. Then nothing - his mind was blank until he was fourteen and lying face-up in an alley, with no memory of what had happened during those last eight years. He had hidden, erasing himself from people’s minds, from security cameras, keeping under the radar and alone.

The empty periods of his life were always there, huge, dark spots of nothing, hollows in his mind. Occasionally, he’d get a glimpse of something: he knew that he had been happy sometimes, he knew at one point he’d been on the ocean, he remembered eating a pizza in a small bar, he remembered watching television in a crappy hotel room with the feeling of someone brushing his hair. He remembered the smell of pears, for some reason.

 _Perhaps I can help you with that._ The old man pulled away and smiled at him. _My name is Ukai Ikkei, and I hope that you can trust me._

Even though it was dumb, even though Kageyama had spent the last four years of his life fearing being caught, being put in the system, being shipped off to some mutant academy or facility where they would cage him up and experiment on him, he did trust Ukai. He just _did_.

So here he was, watching through the van’s window as the purpling sky and pink clouds rushed by. The sun was setting behind the hills to the west, the radio was playing an old 60’s ballad and Ukai and his friends were chatting. Takeda, the messy-haired man with the huge, boxy glasses, seemed nice enough: his mind smelled like cotton and soap and had a lime-green aura of kindness around him, dotted with specks of orange anxiety and unconfidence. The other student, the quiet one with the bun and huge, brown eyes, had smelled like wood shavings and spices, maybe cinnamon? He’d was nervous, the aura around him orange and wavy, with strong undercurrents of fear and strength that should’ve been contradictory but instead chased each other around and around.

Kageyama had felt the old man’s mind focused on him, so he didn’t pry into their minds. However, he could get a general impression of people without explicitly digging through their heads: both of them seemed safe.

He trusted Ukai and, he thought that Ukai had trusted him. It had been difficult, pretending to bare his mind to the man, while keeping such a large part of it hidden and unseen. Ukai hadn’t seemed to notice the dark shadows that were Kageyama’s constant companion.

They were talking in the front of the van about traffic, about sports and what they would be having for dinner, so Kageyama let himself sink into a doze. He was tired. So tired. He was tired of loneliness, tired of fear. For the first time in, well, maybe forever, he felt as if things might be changing for the better. And so, he slept. As his mind relaxed, he sunk into the shadows that lurked in his mind, into the endless, cool darkness that spun with purple galaxies and blinking stars and the ever-present force inside of him whispered, _Don’t forget, friend. You are mine._


	2. shines so bright

Hinata Shoyou woke with the sun. 

He always had. Something deep inside of him warmed and stirred as the sun crawled towards the horizon. 

Sometimes he’d ignore it and go back to sleep, but today, he was _awake_. Kicking off his sheets, he rolled off his bed and threw on the first t-shirt he could find on the floor. He still wasn’t used to the strange, heat-resistant material that all of his clothes were now made of, how they were heavier than normal, crinkled a bit, kept heat in. Not that he would ever complain. It was a small price to pay for being allowed to stay here.

Hinata threw open his door and bolted down the halls of the Academy, his bare feet muted on the aging carpets. He ran down the maze of halls and coiling stairs, past the large, arched lobby and through the wooden front doors that creaked on iron hinges.

Night was still clinging to the earth but there was a purple backdrop behind the black sky; the stars were fading, the trees stirring. And Hinata could feel it. It was as if there was a compass deep inside of him that pointed forward and down, to a point just under the horizon. It pulled with a strong, magnetic force.

Hinata veered away from the gravel driveway that stretched away from the mansion and instead ran past the soccer field and messy volleyball courts, towards the layers of forest that bordered Ukai’s land. He stepped high and fast, trying to watch for acorns or burrs in the dark. He really should've grabbed some shoes.

He had run this path a thousand times and so he let his feet guide him as he wove between trees, jumped over undergrowth, and finally scaled a steep slope. The land rolled away underneath him, dotted with blankets of forests, cities, twisting rivers, roads. The darkness of night was heavy and expectant.

Hinata reached the top of the hill just as the golden rim of the sun burst out from the horizon. The clouds above shone red, purple, pink and golden light spilled over the horizon, slowly lowering towards the land as the sun crawled higher and higher. 

Throwing his hands up, Hinata closed his eyes and felt as the sunbeams bent down towards his hand. 

He waited.

A minute.

Two. 

Then the sunbeams touched his fingers and warmth spilled underneath his skin, charging him, energizing him, like electricity. 

It had been a boring, rainy week. While Hinata still soaked in solar radiation even on cloudy days, it was nothing compared to _this_.

Slowly, as the sun moved up and its light moved down, covering Hinata, he lowered his arms and hummed, smiling. The dewy trees and grass glistened, insects hummed, birds chirped, there was even a gentle roar of traffic on the nearby highway. 

Sighing, Hinata flopped down onto the grass on the side of the wide, limbs spread out, ignoring the itch of the grass, still enjoying the nourishing rays from the morning sun. It smelled like summer.

He'd have to be back at the Academy soon. He shouldn’t, couldn’t, be late to breakfast which always began at seven, on the dot. Of course, afterward, there would be hours of lessons, lectures, and worksheets on math, biology, history. But it was hard to dread anything in the warmth of the sun.

Today was going to be a good day. 

Maybe the new student would finally come down from his rooms. 

It had been over almost two weeks since Ukai, Takeda and Asahi has returned from the Capital with a withdrawn, black-haired boy. Hinata had only seen him in passing as Takeda hurried him to an upstairs bedroom. He had seemed tired and sad, which choppy black-hair shielding his face.

“He’s sick and will take a while to heal up, but … he’s had a rough time,” Takeda had said to them all that night. “He’s been living on his own for a while. We just need to let him get used to all of this.” 

Afterward, Hinata had barraged Takeda with questions about the newcomer, what was his name, where did he come from, how old was he. He had found out that his name was Kageyama Tobio, he had been living alone for years, he had telepathy and telekinesis and that Ukai had strict orders that no one was to bother him. For days afterward, Hinata would ask about Kageyama, until it became obvious that Takeda had told Hinata all that he was willing to say. 

“Why are you so hung up on this?” Tanaka had asked a few nights ago after Hinata had asked Takeda what Kageyama was doing for the third time that evening. 

“I’m not,” Hinata said, blushing. “I’m not hung up on anything.”

But that was a lie. 

Hinata loved Ukai's Academy. He loved the people, he loved the fields and forests surrounding it, and he loved the freedom of being able to feel the sun on his skin and be around the other students of the school. 

But, he wasn’t an idiot. It was a small academy and he knew that he was the odd one out.

Everyone else had their group:

  * Daichi, Suga, and Asahi had known each other for ages and were the original students of Ukai’s Academy. Apparently, they were the reason he had founded it, to keep them together and prevent Suga from being sent to the Facility. Plus they were much older than Hinata and were preparing for their military service. 
  * Nishinoya and Tanaka were best friends and usually hung out together. They seemed to like Hinata, but Hinata wasn’t sure how long it would be before they got annoyed with a younger kid hanging out with them constantly. 
  * Ennoshita, Narita, and Kinoshita were a close-knit group; they also knew each other from before the Academy and pretty much kept to themselves. They were all kind, but quiet, and happy enough with each other.
  * Tsukishima and Yamaguchi were the only other ones Hinata's age, but they had also known each other from before and really only needed each other.  




Plus Tsukishima was an ass.

So Hinata was on his own.

He was the newest member, having only shown up five months ago, and although the others were kind and fun to hang out with, he knew that he was the unwanted new kid. Hinata didn’t know where the line was and was desperate not to cross it.

But Kageyama was Hinata's age and he was now going to be the New Kid. If he needed advice or anything, who better to ask than the guy who had been the newest before him? Who better to get close to? 

A small, reasonable part of Hinata’s brain tried to say that it was dumb to select friends before actually meeting someone, but the rest of him didn’t care. He had a good feeling about this. 

Now, if only he could actually meet Kageyama. 

As he lay in the grass, basking in the newly risen sun, he began to play out imaginary scenes of being introduced to the mysterious new student, discovering that he too liked to play volleyball, (what a coincidence!), finding out that he also liked outdated cartoons (what’s your favorite?), discovering that he also needed a friend (me too). 

The sun was warm on his face, the grass was cool underneath, and as the birds awoke and the roar of traffic grew louder, sleep somehow snuck up on Hinata.

 

 

 

The chirping of his digital watch woke him. He startled, his body stiff on the hard ground and his face warm. Very warm. Wait, had the sun been up to that high just a few minutes ago? 

Drowsily, Hinata lifted his wrist to turn off the alarm and froze. It was 7:00 AM. Breakfast time.

Compared to the Yukigaoki Academy, where Hinata had been previously, Ukai’s Academy had few rules, but one thing that Ukai and the other teachers seemed to care about was punctuality. And Hinata was not the best at punctuality. No one had said anything yet, but he had noticed their frowns and glances and Hinata could not upset them. He needed them to like him. He needed to be allowed to stay here.

He could not go back.

Heart pounding, Hinata jumped up, his bare feet prickling in the now dry grass and broke into a run. 

Shit, he should already be there by now, breakfast starts at 7:00 on the dot, but it would take him at least ten minutes of running.

He wasn’t supposed to use his powers out in the open without supervision, but…

Hinata glanced side to side. No one was there. They were too far from town for anyone to be accidentally walking by (probably), so Hinata, bent his knee on his next step, crouched to the ground before leaping and igniting.

The solar radiation that he stocked and stored in his body burst out; he knew that if he could see himself now, his skin, hair, and eyes would be burning, sparking with arcs of golden energy. The world sharpened around him: colors became more vibrant, sensations grew stronger, he felt full of life. Using the pulsating energy around him, he pushed himself up from the earth and forward, shooting across the grounds, straight for the Main House. He stayed several feet in the air and swerved away from trees and bushes, doing his best not to scorch any plants and leave evidence that he had used his power.

Within seconds, he was rocketing towards the door of the Academy and, as quickly as he could, he slowed his approach and sucked, pulling the solar energy back it. For a moment, it felt as if the heat and energy would be too much to contain, to hold, but then it shrunk and slipped back inside him, leaving him to stumble on the Academy’s steps in his normal, human form. 

Hinata slipped in through the front doors and speed-walked towards the dining room, patting his clothes, his hair, trying to look put together. Loud voices chattered behind the mahogany doors. He stumbled and grasped the door handle, trying to re-orient himself. The heat was gone, the energy was gone, gravity was back. It was always difficult to get a hold of himself after letting the sun out. Shaking his head, he put on a guilty face and slipped inside.

 

 

 

Kageyama was getting a headache. 

The new mental walls that Ukai had instructed him how to build were barely holding up under the constant wave after wave of mental noise. Every time Kageyama raised his head he was assaulted with smells and sensations and blinking lights and sounds. Even with his head bowed, he couldn’t keep them out. 

His old walls would have stood up. He wouldn’t have felt a thing with his old walls, but that, Ukai had insisted, was the problem. 

“Your defenses right now rely on total isolation,” Ukai had said during one of their lessons, just a few days after Kageyama had arrived. “You completely block any mental signals.”

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Kageyama asked, picking at the rest of the sandwich Takeda had brought up to him. He had gotten over whatever sickness he had had yesterday and had an appetite for the first time in over a week. “Don’t you want to block it out?”

“You want to block out some signals, to the point where your mental input is manageable.” Ukai rubbed his chin, his heavy eyebrows furrowed. “When you go out in public, do you talk to anyone? Interact at all?”

Kageyama shook his head. 

“Do you have to focus our your walls the entire time?”

Kageyama hesitated and then nodded. 

“That’s the problem. Your walls are strong, yes, but their energy-consuming and a distraction. Your defenses should be subconscious.”

“I don’t know how else to do it,” Kageyama said, frowning.

“I will show you how. Or else, I will attempt to show you how. Our powers are fundamentally different so you will have to figure out the particulars.”

Kageyama blinked. “I thought we had the same powers.”

“Technically we do, but the ways mutations manifest almost always differ from person to person. For me, people are like radio stations,” Ukai said, the gravely cadence of his deep voice rising. “I can hear them buzzing and cracking all around me. I can hear words or strong emotions, but I need to tune in before I can get any more information. When I was a boy, I used to lock myself in my bathroom and wrap my head in towels when the noise got too loud. Sometimes it felt as though the entire world was roaring, deafening me.”

Kageyama knew that feeling too well. He always stayed in hotel rooms on high floors and mostly went out at night, never talking to others, staying away from crowds. “How did you get it to stop?”

Ukai snorted. “You can’t get the world to stop. The best you can do is stop up your ears. But before we get started on that, I need a better idea of how your powers work. When you interact with someone using your powers, what do you feel?”

“Oh.” Kageyama shifted again, looking out the window to the green fields and trees that surrounded the academy. The summer sun shone and a small group of figures was playing on an overgrown soccer field. Kageyama watched. “I don’t know. I guess I can smell people.”

“Smell?”

“Yeah. But, I mean, in my head.” Kageyama furrowed his eyebrows. As far as he could remember, he had never had to explain this to someone; it was just something that happened. “People smell like different things and I see colors when I look at them, colors in the air, and sometimes I’ll feel things too. Like I’ll feel as though I’m touching water or something.”

“Fascinating,” Ukai mused, leaning back in his chair. “That sounds like a psychic variant of synesthesia. Have you mentioned this to Takeda?”

Kageyama grimaced and shook his head. Takeda had also been paying him daily visits, showing up each time with new paperwork to sign and new measurements to take. Yesterday, Kageyama had spent two hours hooked up to a brainwave machine, moving an apple up and down in the air.

“How do they overwhelm you?”

“I don’t know. It just becomes too much sometimes. I don’t know. I’ll usually get a headache if it becomes too loud.” 

Ukai nodded. “So it’s not the type of input, but the amount of input that overwhelms you. That’s good. We can work with that.”

Every day since then, Ukai had come up to Kageyama’s room and spent several hours running through mental exercise after mental exercise. Kageyama envisioned boxes and walls and waterfalls and did yoga and drank strange tea and did breathing exercises alongside several other seemingly meaningless tasks. Most of it felt useless, but Ukai wasn’t the type of person that you fought against, and as the days past, Kageyama could feel walls, thinner, translucent walls, forming around his mental space. 

Finally, Ukai had declared that he was ready to test out his defenses around others.

“It will be difficult,” Ukai had warned. “You’ll need to get used to it.”

“I’ll be fine,” Kageyama had replied. Actually he was terrified to meet the other students, but he was also anxious to meet them. He didn’t understand it - as far as he could remember, he had never had any form of interaction with someone his own age - but something about the bond between the other students interested him.

He had only officially met that tall guy with the long brown hair ( was his name Azume? Azoma? ) but he had often seen the others during his long staring sessions out the window. 

They seemed happy. They seemed nice. When Ukai or Takeda mentioned the other students, they would emit feelings of pride or joy. Occasionally Kageyama would hear a thought or feeling waft up from somewhere else in the house and it had always been feelings of joy or laughter or family. 

Sometimes, in the years when Kageyama had lived alone, using his powers to steal food and hotel rooms, when he had nothing better to do than watch TV, he would get a funny feeling in his chest when characters would hug or touch each other on-screen. 

Something would tighten deep inside of him. Like, he was missing something that he had never experienced.

Sometimes he would imagine someone hugging him, someone warm, wrapping their arms around him and squeezing, and the thing inside his chest would pull and catch and his throat would hurt. 

It was dumb. He didn’t know why he thought that way.

In the last few years, he had been too afraid of being caught by the government to try and talk to anyone. Even if he wanted to, he wasn’t sure he knew how. Maybe he had loved someone in the years that had been stolen from him. Maybe that was why he sometimes woke in bed with the assumption that someone was sleeping beside him. Before the blacked-out years, he thought that he remembered loving his parents, but the few memories of them he had would always morph into memories of the crash and Kageyama would feel the terror, the crunch, the pain, the pressure, followed by a blinding, piercing light -

He had been looking forward to meeting the other students.

But now that he was here, sitting at breakfast, he regretted everything.

It was awful.

Everything was so _loud_. 

Colors and scents and sensations swirled as the crowd of people shouted and yelled and thought and felt and remembered all around him until he was too nauseous to even pick at his food. 

Ukai had already introduced him to the group and had made the other students and teachers introduce themselves, although Kageyama had forgotten almost all of their names. He did recognize the older student with the man bun, Azumane, who had smiled gently at him but quickly averted his gaze. There was a shorter student with blond highlights who smelled like asphalt and made Kageyama’s heart race, and another with green hair who was surrounded by silvery-blue glow in the air around him, and another student with grey hair and a kind smile, who smelled like ozone and rain and made pressure build in Kageyama’s head, like the beginning of a storm. 

Thankfully, Ukai had lead Kageyama to the seat next to where Ukai sat at the head of the table. Takeda sat directly in front of him, Saeko, another teacher, sat next to Takeda, and to Kageyama’s left was one of the older students, Daichi. Daichi seemed nice enough, his mind was quieter than the others, and he seemed genuinely interested in Kageyama and had tried to start a conversation a few times, but whenever Kageyama looked at him he smelled raw flesh and had the feeling that his body was being turned inside out. He kept his eyes glued to the table. 

The mental walls that Ukai had helped him develop shook with each wave of noise but they weren't filtering out nearly enough. A headache had blossomed in the front of Kageyama’s forehead and was growing, slowly cracking open the rest of his skull. 

He had only been downstairs, what, twenty minutes? 

He was hopeless. _Pull yourself together,_ he thought. He remembered Ukai’s calm voice, their sessions. _Breathe._

He pictured impossibly high glass walls encasing him; he imagined the mental attacks around him breaking against the wall like bursting paintballs. 

Kageyama breathed deeply through his nose and, strangely, the noises subsided. The headache paused. Maybe he could do this, maybe it wasn’t so hard. Slowly, he lifted his head and looked at the person who was talking - Saeko, with her blond hair and piercings - and had just begun trying to figure out what she was laughing so hard about when another student barreled into the room.

The instant the orange-haired kid stepped in through the doors, heat spilled over Kageyama’s body, as though he had been doused in hot wax. The room flooded with the overpowering smell of sharp, burning citrus and Kageyama could see waves of light hovering over the newcomers form, like sunbeams. 

He was so caught up in staring at the light that he didn’t notice the newcomer staring right back. Their eyes locked. For a moment Kageyama was too surprised to look away; anxiety, anticipation, surprise and strange desperation radiated from the kid like heat from an oven. 

Finally, just as the light was becoming too bright, Kageyama tore his eyes away. His headache had returned and was all-consuming now, sinking deeper into his brain. Even with his eyes trained on the table, Kageyama could still feel the heat and light shift in the room as the newcomer began to walk his direction. 

_Please,_ he thought, _go away._

“Ah, Hinata,” Ukai said, asr the orange-haired guy approached. “You’re late. Again.”

“Sorry, sir,” Hinata said, timidly. He was standing just a few feet away from Kageyama and was thinking so hard, Kageyama could hear: _I’m sorry, Forgive me, Idiot, I’m so stupid, I want to stay, I’m sorry, Don’t be late, he was looking at me, please don’t be mad -_

Kageyama wanted to plug his ears and scream. 

Ukai sighed and waved his hand, signaling the newcomer to move closer, saying, “Hinata, this is Kageyama Tobio. He’s joining our academy.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Hinata said, his voice calm and cheery, although Kageyama could feel his nervousness. 

Kageyama turned his head towards Hinata and slowly, very slowly, raised his eyes again, forcing them to focus on the body behind the aura.

Hinata was short and skinny, with knobbly elbows and knees underneath tanned, freckled skin. His hair was an abnormally bright shade of orange that brought out the golden color of his amber eyes. His gaze was intense as he stared at Kageyama as if he was studying him, waiting to see his reaction. 

Kageyama dropped his gaze and nodded his aching head in reply. He didn’t say anything. 

“Hinata, I was hoping that you would show Kageyama around after breakfast.”

“Of course,” Hinata said, smiling. “I wouldn’t mind, I -”

“Actually,” Kageyama interrupted, his voice sounding impossibly loud in his ears. “I was hoping to go back to my room.”

There was a beat of silence. Panic gripped Kageyama’s gut; he could feel the gazes of those around him although the rest of the room kept chattering away. He knew he was being rude and he could feel the surprise around him. Daichi and Saeko were confused, Takeda frowned in a small burst of disappointment and Hinata felt a sharp jolt of despair. 

_What?_ Kageyama didn’t understand why Hinata would feel like that, but his head was hurting too much to think and he was just realizing that perhaps he needed to apologize and agree to a tour when Ukai spoke up.

“That’s fine. The tour can wait until tomorrow. Are you going to finish your food?”

“I’m not hungry.”

“Then,” Ukai said nonchalantly. “I’ll follow you to your room.”

Kageyama stood, scraping his chair back, barely focusing on what he was doing as he did his best to keep his mental walls up. His mind was cloudy, and he accidentally brushed past Hinata as he walked by him, they’re shoulders bumping lightly. Heat burst from the contact and Kageyama flinched away, walking fast, away from Hinata with his light and heat and hurt. 

He followed Ukai out from the dining room, breathing in relief as the noise went down. His headache thrummed. 

“You did well,” Ukai said as he wheeled himself in front of Kageyama through the Academy and into the elevator. “Very well. You were able to keep your defenses up and stay focused. For a while, at least.”

“My head hurts,” Kageyama mumbled. 

“I’m sorry,” Ukai said simply. “You’ll get used to this.”

Kageyama thought of the hurt expression on Hinata’s face, of the surprise and awkwardness of the other students. 

“You’re free to go where you wish, you know.”

“I’m going to my room.”

Ukai watched him with his intelligent gaze. “Do you need help finding your way?”

“No.” 

He was being rude and ungrateful, but his head hurt and how, _how_ , had he possibly thought that he could interact with the other students, live a normal life. He could barely stand sitting in the same room as them for twenty minutes. 

_You’re too different,_ the voice inside his head whispered. _You’re like me. We are alone together._

Kageyama walked away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey. So. OK. I'm obviously a liar. I really do have this story planned and am really hoping to start writing more, but I shouldn't have made any promises I can't keep and I won't do that here. So _hopefully_ I'll have the next chapter out in a timely manner and I hope ya'll stick around for it because it'll have the beginnings of THE ACTUAL PLOT. INTRODUCTIONS ARE OVER NOW - MISUNDERSTANDINGS ABOUND - WILL KAGEYAMA AND HINATA BECOME BEST BUDS? TUNE IN NEXT WEEK (maybe) TO FIND OUT
> 
> ( seriously, anyone who took the time to read his, Thank you So Much! And double thanks if you left kudos or a review :) they warm my heart! )


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